Monday, April 18, 2011

All though my heart lies with Samantha and the witches and warlocks of Bewitched, I have a place in my heart for Major Nelson and the beautiful Jeannie he released from her bottle imprisonment of 2,000 years on I Dream of Jeannie. In fact, I would say that when I was little, Jeannie was more my favorite than Samantha because she was half naked (for the 60s) plus the bottle was so cool and her smoking in/out of it was even more cool!

Late last year, Barbara Eden (Jeannie) announced that she was writing her auto-biography. I knew that meant she most likely would be having a book signing and wouldn't you know it, she did! So I purchased my trip and flew out last Thursday to Los Angeles for the book signing at the Barnes & Noble at the Grove. I met up with some friends that I had met at the Bewitched Fanfare and after going to lunch, we got in line about 15 people from the front due to Lindsay being an employee of B&N getting us wristbands for the front.

A couple weeks before I had bought a replica Second Season bottle that Barbara could sign however the B&N people had all these dumb rules about "No Memorabilia" and "No Posed Photography." I brought it anyway.

At 2PM Barbara showed up. She is very tiny and though she is pushing 80, she looks like she is pushing 60!She asked if we wanted a Q&A or just start signing. We all opted for the former. She did about five questions and then the signing started. When it was my turn, I was so thrilled! She is so beautiful and kind! I had all ready read the book and told her how much I loved it and how she has brought me so much joy through her talents. She thanked me and while Lisa was taking our picture, Lisa said outloud, "No don't you dare pose! But smile!" Barbara laughed and we looked at Lisa and then when the rest of my friends had gone through the line we all told her goodbye at the same time and I blew her a kiss.

I was going to stay until after the line had died and see if I could get the bottle signed but Lisa invited me to go with her and our other friends to a Hollywood Starbucks where the stars always go so I opted for that as Lisa seems to attract an extraordinary amount of stars to her. Well, we ended up visiting with Zsa Zsa Gabor's crazy husband, Prince Frederick!!

When I went back to the Grove for a dinner party that my friend Gina had set up with the possibility of Barbara joining us, I found that the book signing ended early and Barbara had actually been signing memorabilia as well as went to the place where we were having dinner. She had left just before I got there. Oh well! The dinner was fun as I was with other IDOJ fans.

The next day I made my way up to Westward Beach in Malibu, CA where the pilot episode of the show was shot. It was so cool seeing it as it hasn't changed. I also got to be part of some more magic as I was asked to film a proposal of a guy to his girlfriend without her knowing under the cover of them building a sandcastle and her digging up a bottle with the proposal message inside.

All in all, a dream come true and I shall always dream of Jeannie, er, Barbara!